Chronicle

Yes I saw Fantastic Four, the new one (Actually I have seen the 4 movies already, yes the 1994 made by Roger Corman too) but I’m not going to make a review of it, why? Because What can I say about it that has not been said yet, the movie is horrible and should never have been green lighted.

But with that in mind before watching Fantastic Four I watched “Chronicle” the movie that convinced people that Josh Trank could make a movie, so I think my review should be for this movie because is his “opera prima” that’s Latin for his best work (if you take it literally means first work, but we will stick to number one work)

So why Chronicle was so acclaimed and Fantastic Four so terrible? Did power go over his head? Did everything got out of hand because of the big budget? Or, and this is my point of view, he just plain suck and doing internet videos is his “non plus ultra” (Latin for “the best that can be achieved” Look at us using Latin twice already, I feel so smart and proper)

So without any more I give you the review of:

Chronicle

The movie starts as any found footage starts, someone setting a camera (So we start with the wrong foot) and the guy setting it have problems with his father (Seriously can this be more cliché?—Uh now we use French—) Well the movie moves along but if you pay a little attention you might see that there is no plot for the movie, is just like a bunch of internet videos all mashed up together. If you don’t believe me just make this little exercise, watch any scene of the movie and think “would I get the plot of the movie if this were the first scene?” The answer is always yes. The character of Michael B. Jordan is totally useless for the plot, the guy appears in the middle of the story then dies and it has no impact, also the character of the girlfriend is also irrelevant, just happens to be there.

So you might get what I’m trying to say, this movie is poorly written and the visual effects are fine for a youtube video made by some random guy with his friends but this was a studio film and the effects were made by people that earns their living by doing this. There is no character development in this series of videos (I refuse to call it a movie any more) even the gimmick of being found footage doesn’t work if you know a little of a camera, which is, the image and resolution changes from one device to another. When the camera gets destroyed and he gets a new one, it should have been a change on the image like in “The Wizard of Oz” or in “Oz the Great and Powerful” (God save us I’m referring to that movie as a good example) but no, is always the same image, same resolution, same frame rate, same filter, not even the format changes from fullscreen to widescreen to “tallscreen” (that’s when a person records with his/her phone in a vertical way) Who would know that and iPhone has the same picture quality than a TV station camera?

I'm almost sure that Sue Storm was added on post production and re-shoots

 

The point is that all the signs where there if you just look, but people watch it as they watch a viral video, so it got popular and then forgotten, but also shows all the problems Josh Trank have as a director and a person, because let’s see, Daddy issues, yes in Chronicle and in Fantastic Four, not knowing how to  handle a story, Chronicle has no story and Fantastic Four is horrible, not knowing how to work a female character or an actress Chronicle is totally irrelevant  and in Fantastic Four looks like he keep her out deliberately (is like this guy hates women or something). To me I think is a little better a director like Michael Bay (Man am I using Michael Bay as a good example, this guy is in trouble) that puts sexualizes women and put stock characters on the films because at least he us using female characters, and let’s face it lots of people uses stock characters and some have been applauded by it, cough True Detective cough! So it might not be the ideal to sexualize anyone but that is better than just set them aside and try to ignore the fact that the title demands you to put Sue Storm on the film.

As I said, sexualize Sue Storm is not ideal but also let's remember that some women actually like to cosplay lie this.

 So am I willing to watch another movie of this guy? Hell no, Do I hope he gets another job? If is as far from a film it can be is OK with me. That man deserves a restriction order from the film industry.

Concussion or how to change a story to be more likely to get an Oscar.

I haven’t seen the movie, because it is not out damn there is not even a proper poster of the film but I’m almost sure I’ll not watch it unless is an Oscar nominee and my brother make me see it.

Why the aversion to a movie about the one thing I watch the NFL for? Well because it is less accurate than the documentaries about disinformation you like so much.

This movie follows a doctor from Kenia that he by himself brought the attention of the world to the biggest problem of the NFL, Concussions. The problem is that it wasn’t him. Yes he was part of the team that work on that but the one that actually started all was a college football player, professional wrestler and Harvard graduate Christopher Nowinski. As the saying goes “Nobody learns on someone else’s head” I suppose this makes a little more sense in Spanish, any way this guy got his fair share of concussions while playing football in high school and college and decided to see how far this would go so started to research, and start gathering a team to help him among them the guy from this movie Dr. Bennet Omalu.

So there was a team but it was Nowinski who was the face of the movement, he was the one that went to the houses of the players and ask their families if he could perform an autopsy on their recently deceased loved ones. It was Nowinski who wrote the book that made everybody turn to the NFL and not only that but also show that even in the kids games there are concussions, no matter how strong are the helmets. And yes it was Nowinski who faced the NFL in press conferences.

I think people is not ready for a white guy to be the good guy much less a wrestler Harvard graduate

 But I know is way more interesting to write the story of a man who came from Africa and exposed the evil corporation because he believed in the American dream, than a white Harvard graduate that saw the problem because he was affected by it. That is no Oscar material, maybe if we make him stupid but not full retard now that is something I can sell.

If you are interested in the documentary to see all the team working on it is called Head Games and is on Hulu and Google Play. 

Why do I look so Aggressive on my reviews.

Most reviews and opinions that people would find on FB are the opinion of a friend just saying that they like something or not, and most of the time those are just visceral opinions, just because the movie had pretty colours or an actor that they like will recommend the movie or the series, me on the other hand, that is a complete different story.

I like to look at a movie and dissect every single part, see what works and what doesn’t, where it fails and where it succeed, and you can’t do that on a visceral way. I deconstruct the whole thing and yes that looks like I’m picky but you need to be like that to see what make the movie tick.

So just as an autopsy my reviews are going to take out all the vowels of the movie and show them to you, it might look like too much but is the best way to comprehend a movie and why you liked it or not.

Theory Of Everything

I don’t know if you noticed but last review was difficult to me, difficult because I didn’t know how to start, what to talk about it and how to end it. The reason is that I didn’t had any passion about that movie, there was nothing there to make me care, to love it or hate it, nothing to defend or attack, something that I wanted to say about that movie, and I think that is the best reason why that should not be nominated for best film. Because it had nothing for me to get winded up, all my review was going to be was “It’s an OK movie” and that is not worthy of the best movie of the year.

Now let’s see if the last one has something that generates some spark on the old noodle pot.

The theory of everything

The life of Stephen Hawking through the eyes of his wife. I think that was the selling line of the book and the movie. Is a good idea because besides of the sickness that afflicts Stephen he had no bigger problems in it. Was like “I invented a science that will change the world of Physics” the answer was “OK, here is your Nobel”

We see the life of Hawking, his children and how he got through every problem with the help of his wife and other people.

The acting is good and you see the expression of human drama on the characters also as the struggle in life to overcome all the world trials. Wow, I had a regression to film school where I used to justify even the more mindless youtube video, and man I am good to make sound cerebral almost everything. But yes the acting is good and the story is appealing so you are there for a good time.

But nominate Eddie Redmayne for best actor? The guy acts for like 20 minutes and then is the chair and the computer doing all the job, because the guy can’t move. I admit that he gets a pretty good hit with the ground in one moment, and as I said last year “someone capable to take a hit like that deserves an award” but last year Lupita Nyong'o was around for two thirds of the movie, here he was just sitting rolling around, in that case I should got an award years ago.

But I know that he is going to get the Oscar because like Tropic Thunder teach us “you never go full retard” and well there should put a new award call “the not going full retard” there Theory of Everything and Still Alice could fight the award.

And then again I fall on the same point. I don’t get that much passion and heart from this movie, just a good movie that I’ll remember as the life of Stephen Hawking. But is like a Time Life movie, not that great and good for a Saturday afternoon, after lunch, that you feel too full to even play videogames and want to watch a good movie but not very complicated, demanding or immersive, just somebody’s life. And you don’t give an Oscar to a Time Life movie of the week, you just don’t.

So if you want to see this movie go watch it, but is not “you most watch this movie” because is kind of mild and bland, but worth watching it when is on TV or Netflix.

The Imitation Game

Here we have a very important part of the World War, is not a great battle or a new super weapon, is the oldest and more useful weapon of all, Intelligence. To know what your enemy is going to do, so you can act accordingly.

During World War 2 the Nazi army had the “Enigma Machine” a machine that created a new code each day so it was thought to be unbreakable. This movie is about the team how broke the code of this machine with a machine bigger and more expensive, the way everything is made :P so basically they created a computer in the 40s to break the code, to make the oldest decrypt program a brute force one (but to be fair is the one most people use to the date)

The main character of the story is the creator of this machine, Allan Turing in a deformed way because everybody who worked with him describe him as he was charismatic, charming, funny and very social person. But here our writer decided to take what his teachers told him the first day in script class and make him a social awkward, and a recluse person who doesn’t know or want to talk or work with others, so we could have a “fish out of the water” experience, but beside of that we have a good story.

All the events revolve more around the machine itself and the race against the clock. We see the team trying to break the code, and how the Turing’s machine is a struggle from the moment of making it, because in that time nobody thought it was possible a machine could make something that needed to be revised. Then there is the problem to keep the faith of the people because it was pricy keep that thing going. But also we have the life of Turing the way it should be presented, as part of the plot not taking over, a natural progression of events.

This movie is well acted and directed, is not that great to be called the best movie of the year but is a gush of fresh air to the World War 2 movies, because all those movies are the same, we almost never see the guys in military intelligence deciding what to do next, the classic conversations of numbers that are “Take this point will only take us 700 men” but how do they got to that decision. In this movie is a problem after the other; money, strategy, morality. Every time something is in the way of a simple solution.

This is a good movie, worth watching in the theatre or in the home. Because it doesn’t have great cinematic moments is more about the story and the characters. The moments between Keira Knightley and Benedict Cumberbatch move the personal plot and Turing’s Machine and the Enigma moves the rest.

So in short, yes go watch the movie but I think the actors don’t surpass others that I have reviewed or I’ll review next. So better luck next time.